Affordable housing will need more efficiency

Delivery of "affordable and sustainable housing" should be the aim of developers. That was the message from Benjamin Derbyshire, a partner with architect Hunt Thompson Associates, which is working on the Greenwich Millennium Village with Taywood Homes.

But to be affordable, housing developers needed to find a 25-30 per cent improvement in efficiency to see commensurate savings in cost. To do that "we need to industrialise processes to achieve added value," he said. "We need to deploy systems to offer customers added benefits, rather than Widow Twanky stylisation to seduce through superficial kerb appeal."

He urged developers to use current technologies, particularly manufacturing processes and information technology to deliver an adaptable high quality environment that meets today's needs.

"We are in the business of not just building houses but place-making. That, in our analysis, requires responsiveness to end-users and a creative approach to industrialisation and information technologies. It is a thoroughly commercial proposition."